Catching up

There have been a couple of things that I wanted to blog about - I am apologizing in advance for the randomness of everything, but that seems to be the way that my mind works these days.



Today Steve's sermon was just really awesome...I have to do some studying over the next couple of days. I'm pretty sure his wife, Patti, will do a recap of the lesson tomorrow in her blog at http://www.momstransformed.blogspot.com/ so be sure and check that out. I won't type everything if she is going to, but check back here in a few days and I will share my thoughts about my studies in James.

Last Sunday was really good for me too, but for a totally different reason (not that Steve's sermon wasn't really good, but I didn't get to hear all of it). Shawn wasn't able to be with us for two weeks in a row at church due to work and I was pretty bummed out about having to be the single parent with three of them. But it turned out to be one of the most wonderful experiences I have ever had with my boys. I was sitting on the pew with Toby in the carseat to my left, Levi on my lap facing me, and Ayden to my right leaning into me with my arm around him. We were singing (I can't even remember what exactly we were singing) and Levi was swaying with me Ayden was singing in my ear. He didn't know any of the words, but it didn't matter a bit to him or me! I was just sitting there marveling in the fact that my boys were praising our God with me. I so wish that Shawn could have been there with us, but it just made my resolve so much stronger that I want to do all that I possibly can now to win them to God. I want for them to make that decision themselves based on what they have seen God do in the lives of Shawn and I, family, church family, friends, etc. I want to be a swayin' and a dancin' with my Levi, a singin' with my Ayden (and we'll have to see with Toby), and just a praisin' our Jesus for all eternity. What a moment!


Again, all randomness...and I have no clever segue into thought #2.


Soccer yesterday went really well. Shawn had to work yesterday, but he was able to sneak away to see him play. (He is such a great dad!) Bubba still is not really into it, but at least there was no weeping and gnashing of teeth. During the drills, he was paying attention and much to our surprise he really has good control with the ball. He just doesn't really understand the whole premise to the game. Why would that many people all want to share one ball? It doesn't really make sense to me either! I also figured out that I can buy about a half an hour's worth of Levi's attention for fifty cents - with a soft pretzel! NeeNee was there again to help me, but she was actually able to watch Ayden too as Levi was enjoying his treat. It's a good thing he's a slow eater! It's so cute...Ayden's favorite part of the whole thing is when his team does the SUPER SIX (the name of his team) cheer before the game. You'll have to ask him to do it!


We are just amazed at how much Levi is saying, just in the last week or so. It seems like he just has really gotten interested in wanting us to understand what he is saying. It is neat to see him really think about how to say a new word. Here is the list of what he has just started really saying in the last couple of days:
PopPop, GuhGuh (what he is calling Gramma - Shawn's Mom), church, please, Percy (the train), Bertie (the bus), Bodie (what he calls Toby), Bubba (what we call Ayden), down, out, in, done, on, off. I'm sure there are more.


Ayden has been so defiant the last two or three days - time out and spanking don't work with him - he just doesn't care. We've figured out what does work with him, though. If you take his trains from him...yeah, that doesn't sit real well with our obsessed, one-track minded three year old. The night that we had to do that wasn't pretty, but he is learning the hard lesson of action/consequence. The hardest part of it for me is feeling like I'm being too hard on him and knowing how hard to be on Levi. I know it doesn't seem fair to him that Levi "gets away" with more things. The only thing I know to tell him is that Levi is still a baby and he doesn't understand as much as Ayden does. Any suggestions?


Well I need to stop - gotta get ready and head out for LIFE group. I really look forward to this time every week...good fellowship! Have a good night! God bless!